Govt should never have intervened in fees crisis - Jansen
25 August 2016
Cape Town - Outgoing UFS Vice Chancellor Jonathan Jansen says the government's decision to institute a 0% fee increase at South African universities last year created the current funding crisis faced by 19 institutions.
Jansen was speaking at a public lecture at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in Bellville on Thursday, and said that state intervention was the first of three signs that the country's universities were heading for a meltdown.
"Last year, at the end of the fees crisis, politicians decided that they will decide the fee increase for this year," Jansen said.
"It turns out, that's illegal. The Council of Higher Education is the only body that must decide it, and there was a loss of autonomy at the universities.